Seoul Power: South Korea, long in the shadow of other Asian ‘tiger economies,’ is suddenly hip and enormously prosperous – so much so that it may have outgrown its thankless dream of reuniting with the North

Photos: (Top) Wonder Boyz bank member ‘K’ practices dance moves at a Gangnam studio. Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor 

A young woman chats on a cellphone at a cafe in the Gangnam district, which sits on the south bank of the Han River, and is the epicenter of K-Pop. Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor

Graphics: Rich Clabaugh/The Christian Science Monitor

With gun violence down, is America arming against an imagined threat?A Pew study finds that Americans think gun violence has escalated when in reality it’s way down from two decades ago. The violence has dropped, meanwhile, even as gun ownership has increased. View high resolution

With gun violence down, is America arming against an imagined threat?

A Pew study finds that Americans think gun violence has escalated when in reality it’s way down from two decades ago. The violence has dropped, meanwhile, even as gun ownership has increased.

Common Core: Education reform’s next big thing 

Common Core standards ramp up

Common Core promises new tests. Will they be better than the old ones?

Is top ranked Massachusetts messing with education success?

Graphics: Amand Paulson/The Christian Science Monitor

To Invest, or not to Invest? As Wall Street posts a new record, experts decode its message about the state of the economy – and whether it’s too late to invest. Dow at 15,000: What the stock market is telling us Do young people believe in stocks? Why Charles Larsen will be staying out of the market One couples’s rationale for getting into the market Illustration by Dan Vasconcellos/The Christian Science Monitor View high resolution

To Invest, or not to Invest? As Wall Street posts a new record, experts decode its message about the state of the economy – and whether it’s too late to invest.

Dow at 15,000: What the stock market is telling us

Do young people believe in stocks?

Why Charles Larsen will be staying out of the market

One couples’s rationale for getting into the market

Illustration by Dan Vasconcellos/The Christian Science Monitor

The Big Three automakers, reinvented, eye consumers worldwide

GM, Ford, and Chrysler have reinvented themselves in the years since the Great Recession almost spelled the demise of two of the Big Three automakers. Their ‘transformative’ evolution puts them in a position to compete globally.

Graphic: Julie Fallon/The Christian Science Monitor

Photo: Clockwise from top: Chevrolet Silverado, Dodge Dart dashboard, Ford Mustang, Jeep Wrangler. (AP and PRNewsFoto)

The eurozone crisis explained in 5 simple graphs

Governments have collapsed and bailouts have run into the hundreds of billions of euros, and still the eurozone crisis lingers. How did we get here?

Graphics by CS Monitor staff

Facing Terror: Boston bombing reveals a new American maturity toward insecurity

Graphics by Rich Clabaugh/The Christian Science Monitor

Earth Week: Monday was Earth Day, new studies and polls show changes in attitudes toward our planet, confirm warming trends, and show some progress in addressing global warming.

On Earth Day 2013, a planetary report card on global warming

Earth’s cooling came to sudden halt in 1900, study shows

Earth Day 2013: What’s in danger is Earth Day, not just Earth

Photos: (Top) Emperor penguins walk across sea ice near Ross Island, Antarctica. Thomas Beer/AP

(Left) The sun sets behind an oil refinery on Rosedale Highway, in Bakersfield Calif., in 2007. Casey Christie/The Bakersfield Californian/AP

Graphics by Rich Clabaugh/The Christian Science Monitor

Boston Marathon Bombing suspects: Everything we know about Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev so far

US charges against Boston bombing suspect allow for death penalty

Boston Marathon bombing: what the suspects’ arsenal reveals

Did a foreign hand guide Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarvaev?

Opinion: Motive in Boston bombings: Look to tribal code of honor

Photos: (top) Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26 (l.) and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing. The Lowell Sun & Robin Young/AP

(left) Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was dubbed Suspect No. 2 by law enforcement. David Green/AP

A still frame from video shows Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in an ambulance after he was captured in Watertown, Mass. Robert Ray/AP

The Marathon’s Aftermath

Across the city, people reminded each other of the need to affirm all of that which the bomber sought to destroy. They noted the spirit of the world’s oldest marathon and the meaning of the local Patriots’ Day holiday that celebrates the opening battles of the American Revolutionary War. -The Monitor’s Editorial Board

Please visit our website csmonitor.com for full coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing.

Photos by Melanie Stetson Freeman and Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor